Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in September, when he testified before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the U.S. Capitol. Cuomo told lawmakers that he didn't recall vetting a report on his administration's handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

It might feel like there is an amnesia epidemic afflicting New York, or at least the five boroughs that contain a little less than half its population: Based on the vast majority of the polls, a plurality of Democratic voters appears ready to return Andrew M. Cuomo to elective office four years after he resigned as governor amid an overlapping cluster of ethics scandals.

His resurrection is in part the result of a packed mayoral field of nearly a dozen contenders, plus a ranked-choice voting system that, as it winnows out that crowd, could end up rewarding not a clear winner but merely the person a sufficient number of voters dislike the least.

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Mr. Cuomo’s return is also due to people who should know better giving the political equivalent of a shrug and acting as if his abuses of power were no big deal.

To offer but one sorry example: U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called on the former governor to resign in March 2021 (just days after this editorial board made the same demand) and

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